Pictograph of firewood arranged together for a sacrifice. Based on the original meaning "imperial ancestral sacrifice", now written as 禘. Later the meaning of 帝 changed to "emperor".

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

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